Philosophy and the Good Life: Reason and the Passions in Greek, Cartesian and Psychoanalytic Ethics

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Cambridge University Press, 1998 M07 23 - 230 pages
Can philosophy enable us to lead better lives through a systematic understanding of our human nature? John Cottingham's thought-provoking study examines the contrasting approaches to this problem found in three major phases of Western philosophy. Starting with attempts of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics and Epicureans to cope with the recalcitrant forces of the passions, he moves on to examine the fascinating and hitherto little-studied moral psychology of Descartes, and his effort to integrate the physical and emotional aspects of our humanity into a rational blueprint for fulfilment. He concludes by analysing the insights of modern psychoanalytic theory into the human predicament, arguing that philosophy neglects them at its peril if it hopes to come to terms with the complex relationship between reason and the emotions.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Philosophy and how to live
5
Ratiocentric ethics
29
The ethics of science and power
61
Ethics and the challenge to reason
104
Notes
167
Bibliography
218
Index
227
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